Quality of work and employment 2006

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Skills development

Key aspects of the section on developing skills and competences are educational level, the proportion of early school leavers and lifelong learning.

Educational attainment level

Figure 8 illustrates the impact of educational attainment on employment rates for both women and men. In contrast to men, who record an employment rate of 57% for workers with the lowest education level, women with the same educational level have an employment rate of only 36%.

Early school leavers

Malta (41.2%), Portugal (38%) and Spain (30.8%) have the highest rates of early school leavers, while Poland (5.5%) Slovakia (5.8%) and the Czech Republic (8.4%) record the lowest rates of people leaving school early.

In the EU25, the rate of early school leavers decreased from 17.7% in 2000 to 15.2% in 2005 but is still considerably above the target to reduce this rate to no more than 10%. Figure 10 reveals a considerably higher percentage of male than female early school leavers.

Lifelong learning

In 2003, the LFS included an ad hoc module on lifelong learning. In the EU25, 42% of the population aged between 25 and 64 years participated in some form of training or education. The percentage for men was slightly higher than for women, ranging from 12% in Hungary to 89% in Austria (Figure 11).

A breakdown by age and sex shows that younger age groups participate to a significantly higher degree in training and education than older age groups. While there are few differences between women and men in the 25-54 year age groups, the gender gap is just over 10% in the 55-64 year age group.

The LFS ad hoc module on lifelong learning included questions on formal, non-formal, and informal education and training.

Non-formal education and training includes all types of taught learning and activities that are not part of a formal education programme. Informal learning is defined as self-learning that is not part of either formal or non-formal education and training.

Table 5 reveals marked differences in participation in non-formal learning in relation to occupational status and level of educational attainment in all EU25 countries. Differences between high and low skilled categories are considerable among white-collar workers and less significant among blue-collar workers.

Table 5: Participation in non-formal learning, by occupational status, EU25, 2003 (%)
Participation in non-formal learning, by occupational status, EU25, 2003 (%)

	White-collar worker		Blue-collar worker
	High skilled	Low skilled	High skilled	Low skilled
EU25	30	19	12	10
AT	44	30	22	15
BE	36	25	14	12
CY	50	25	10	5
CZ	24	13	10	13
DE	24	13	9	5
DK	24	13	9	5
EE	32	19	9	4
EL	12	8	1	2
ES	19	13	7	6
FI	62	50	35	31
FR	35	23	15	15
HU	10	7	3	4
IE	22	15	12	10
IT	14	6	3	3
LT	25	5	2	3
LU	30	19	9	6
LV	35	16	6	5
MT	24	11	6	6
NL	16	12	11	7
PL	29	12	6	8
PT	21	13	4	6
SE	67	48	37	33
SI	48	29	19	12
SK	40	19	24	24
UK	54	41	26	21

Note: Target population: 25-64 years old.

Source: Eurostat, Statistics in focus, Lifelong learning in Europe, 8/2005; LFS, ad hoc module on lifelong learning, 2003

Figure 13 shows the significant impact of educational level on participation in informal learning across the EU25 countries. The participation rate varies from 86% in Austria to 6% in Hungary.

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• ID: EU0609SR01
• Author: Anni Weiler
• Country: EU Level
• Language: EN
• Publication date: 07-09-2006